Morning Thoughts On The Recent History Of Notre Dame VS Stanford

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Stanford Cardinal have only played 30 games in their long history of playing college football, but what they have achieved in that short time against each other makes it special.

Since 1988, Notre Dame and Stanford have played every year but two. The 1995 and 1996 seasons saw a break, but for almost 30 years, these two schools have met on the field of battle.

It’s a game that even seems to have an Illuminati like fingerprint on it once a rivalry trophy was introduced. It was presented for the first time in 1989 by the Notre Dame Club of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Legends Trophy, is a combination of Irish Crystal and California Redwood. It’s a beautiful trophy, and one that represents both schools well.

So, in 1989- only five games into the series, a magical rivalry trophy was introduced. It’s like this game was hand-picked by the two schools to be the next big thing. It was also, at the time, about the complete opposite of another Notre Dame rivalry with the Miami Hurricanes. As much as the Miami and Notre Dame game turned into just a great hate-filled series, Notre Dame was obviously looking for something different, and they got it with Stanford.

Throughout the years the game has seen it all with blowouts, upsets, close game, last play wins/losses, and recently it has had HUGE national championship implications. This season was supposed to really put this game at the center of the playoff conversation as well as making a statement as one of the best rivalries in college football- but both teams decided to go on some losing streaks to put most of that talk to bed.

It’s a shame really, but that doesn’t mean that this game isn’t a big one for both schools. They hate each other, and that’s a great thing for anyone involved. Perhaps this game tonight will be yet another close one, or maybe it is a blowout. It doesn’t matter now that both teams are out of the playoff picture (could have been a top 5 matchup otherwise). What matters right now, is that both teams are looking to salvage their seasons and a win here could change the fortunes of either team.